News highlights for October 27, 2010

CisionPoint news monitoring provides this small sampling of the university's daily news coverage. Click headline to read full text via Cision or link directly to the online article where available. For questions or comments about this service, or to add or delete a name from the mailing list, please contact Gerry Everding.

BBC News
Humans got to Asia much earlier

10/26/2010
Modern humans could have reached East Asia much earlier than believed, according to new evidence. US scientist Erik Trinkaus from Washington University in St Louis explained to BBC News that the ancient remains mean modern humans co-existed with our closest relatives – Neanderthals and Neanderthal-like people – across Asia. The study is likely to be controversial: the earliest humans previously known from East Asia were half this age.

Link to Article Related news release See also UPI, Discover Magazine (blog), St. Louis Globe Democrat

JAMA Medical News & Perspectives

Reports of concussions from youth sports rise along with awareness of the problem
10/27/2010

A new study documents more emergency-room visits by children with sports-related concussion; it’s unknown whether the increase reflects a true rise in incidents or just better reporting. Mark E. Halstead, MD, assistant professor of orthopedics and pediatrics at Washington University in St Louis, co-authored new guidelines for assessing when an athlete can return to competition following a concussion. “Rather then telling a player to sit out for a set period of time, we gradually increase the athlete’s activities over a 5-day period to make sure the athlete does not demonstrate symptoms.” Link to Article See also The Examiner

Psychology Today
Save us from ourselves
10/26/2010

There’s a new super-hero complex in our society,” writes Simine Vazire, an assistant professor of psychology and the director of the Personality and Self-Knowledge lab at Washington University in St. Louis. “Apparently, many of us think that we can read and write while driving. This is the most stupendous lack of self-insight I have ever seen.” The time has come, she argues, for the legal system to save us from ourselves. “Apparently, the allure of believing we are multi-tasking superheroes is irresistible.” Link to Article

Marketplace Public Radio

Minnesota House race the costliest in U.S.
0/26/2010

GOP incumbent Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in Minnesota and her Democratic challenger, Tarryl Clark, are running the costliest U.S. House race in the country. “This a race that will probably total something in the neighborhood of $16-18 million, which is roughly 9 or 10 times what we see on average in a House District race across the country,” said WUSTL congressional expert Steven S. Smith. Link to Article

LA Weekly (blog)

Carly Fiorina, Rebublican U.S. Senate candidate, hospitalized with infection caused by breast reconstruction surgery
10/26/2010

There was an unforeseen wrench thrown in Republican senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina’s campaign this morning. Fiorina has been hospitalized due to an infection related to the reconstructive surgery she received after surviving breast cancer. According to a study published in the American Medical Association’s Archives of Surgery, surgical site infections occurred in 5.3 percent of women who had received reconstructive surgery within one year of the operation. (The study was conducted by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis from 1999 to 2002.) Link to Article

KMOX-AM Radio News (St. Louis)

New study finds a link between smoking and dementia
10/26/2010

A local Alzheimers researcher says there’s definitely a lesson to be learned from a new study about middle-aged smokers. The new study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, finds smoking in mid-life significantly raises your risk of Alzheimers Disease or other forms of dementia. In some cases of heavy smokers, the risk of dementia doubles. People need to take note of this study, says Dr. John Morris, director of Washington University’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Link to Article

St. Louis Beacon

New Washington U. center aims to foster polite talk of religion and politics
10/26/2010

Even if Americans ever achieve the Jeffersonian ideal of separating church and state, that is not the same as keeping apart religion and politics. That’s the view of Jon Meacham, the former editor of Newsweek and inaugural lecturer for the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics at Washington University. He told an audience at Graham Chapel on the university campus Tuesday afternoon that “religion shapes the life of the nation without strangling it.”

Link to Article

STLtoday.com
10 questions with one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World
10/26/2010

Michael Sherraden, 62, of University City, a professor of social development at Washington University in St. Louis, was named one of Time magazine’s 2010 100 Most Influential People in the World. He was recognized for his pioneering work in asset building for low-income people. For example, his work was the basis for the I Can Save program at University City’s Delmar-Harvard Elementary School, a program that encourages kids to save for college. Suburban Journals reporter Mary Shapiro talked to Sherraden about his career and honors. Link to Article

KTVI – FOX2now.com / Morning Show (St. Louis)

Grumpy grandpa: Why are some older adults so grumpy?
10/27/2010

Grumpy old men and women often fodder for funny movies. But in reality it’s no laughing matter. It’s been said that crabby older folks were most likely grumpy young people at one time. But doctors now think the cause may be depression, according to Dr. Eric Lenze. Dr. Lenze is a psychiatrist at Washington University in St. Louis, where they are conducting a study on late life depression. Link to Article / Online Video

West End Word

WU professor’s work may change way Internet works
10/27/2010

Patrick Crowley, a professor of computer science and engineering at Washington University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, is part of a collaborative team working to radically change the way the Internet works. The “Named Data Networking” team seeks to design an Internet architecture built around requests for and responses to named data rather than machine addresses. Crowley’s research team received $899,996 as part of a National Science Foundation’s “Future Internet Architecture” program award worth up to $8 million over three years. Link to Article Related news release http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/21107.aspx


News in higher education

USA Today

Alcohol fuels tensions between college students, police
10/26/2010

October has been a bad month for college towns. On Oct. 2, a raid by New Haven, Conn., police to break up a party by Yale University students led to claims of police brutality and excessive force. One week later, a party by Penn State University students turned violent when a fight between two women spilled out onto the streets of State College. Last week, a Pace University football player was shot and killed by police outside a popular eatery. What they have in common is alcohol — a common component in encounters between police and college students that can fuel tensions. Link to Article

New York Times

Help stop bullying, U.S. tells educators
10/25/2010

In a 10-page letter to be sent on Tuesday to thousands of school districts and colleges, the Department of Education urges the nation’s educators to ensure that they are complying with their responsibilities to prevent harassment, as laid out in federal laws. Link to Article

The Washington Post

Four Loko fears run rampant across college campuses
10/26/2010

Four Loko, aka “Blackout in a Can,” “Liquid Cocaine” and “Alcopop,” has gone from college drink du jour to national headline after reports that the caffeinated, malted beverage hospitalized nine freshmen in Washington state this month. Several states are considering outlawing the drink and at least two universities have banned it from campus while the Food and Drug Administration reviews its safety, the Associated Press reports. Link to Article

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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Inside Higher Ed
University Business

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